by Joe Mitchell: The Klitschkos brothers are the two top heavyweights today in most people’s opinion. They have been winning for a number of years and some starting to call them great. Well, I completely disagree they are good fighters in awful era with the only threat at present being WBA heavyweight champion David Haye. WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko, who is ranked No 2 in the world in the heavyweight division, returned from a long layoff in 2008 and dominated Sam Peter.

It was a good performance considering Vitali’s long layoff. But Vitali has gone downhill since then with unimpressive wins over Juan Carlos Gomez, Kevin Johnson, Chris Arreola and Alberto Sosnowski, who I view as C level opponents at best. Vitali looked old and slow in those performances, struggling to land his big punches and it was boring to watch. I do give him credit for putting it out there in his fights; he is busy and like to throw his punches. He is now fighting 38-year-old Shannon Briggs on October 16th, who hasn’t looked good for years and hasn’t beaten anyone either. I honestly think Vitali is there for the taking and think someone could eventually pull off a big upset in the next year or so.

Wladimir who is ranked No1 has been beating his mandatorys by knocking them all out. But seriously they have been safety first wins against non punchers who are no threat Wladimir, whose main weakness is his chin. You can say Samuel Peter is a puncher but that guy still looks slow on a speed bag. Look at Wladimir’s last 5 opponents none of them make you go “wow, that was a great win!” None of them are. Eddie Chambers at 108lbs still looked out of shape and should go down to cruiserweight. Ruslan Chageav, ok was unbeaten but was also slow with average power and has hepatitis. Hasim Rahman, who was way past his best and like many had lost the fight before getting in the ring. Tony Thompson who was unbeaten but started when he was in his late 20’s, and finally Sultan Ibragimov who was good but nothing special. I recommend you watch that fight if you are having trouble sleeping. Wladimir is the same outside the ring. He fights on the back foot, even against fighters who can’t punch, pouring his left jab and throwing the occasional big right hand. Also people forget Wladimir has done his fair share of ducking and avoiding Lamon Brewster and Corrie Sanders who beat him in 04 and 03. Wladimir did rematch Brewster but after he just lost and on the decline. Finally fans should thank David Haye for finally bringing out the spirit in Wladimir who finally showed some personality calling out Haye a number of times.

I respect Wladimir for having beaten the people put in front of him but the last time a real contender faced him he got knocked out or stopped. Although the David Haye fight has not happening due to a number of reasons (ducking, claims by Haye of slave contracts, rematches, money etc) it will be the ultimate test for both fighters and will be the biggest heavyweight fight for years.

Personally, I think the Klitschkos brothers are killing boxing with their boring fights, hence HBO dropping them. Time for a new era and starting that era hopefully David Haye if he finally fights one of the brothers.